Support David's Legacy: Beacon's oldest new farm

Your donation helps buy a Gothic high tunnel and growing tables, irrigation equipment and fencing and to begin planning the next season of the farm at Hiddenbrooke, the oldest new farm in Beacon, NY.

My grandfather David was a farmer, which is how the family came to live at Hiddenbrooke, a monastery property owned by an Ursuline order of Catholic nuns in Beacon, NY. A Burke from north of Galway, Ireland, where most Burkes come from, farmers and gravediggers all, Grandpa would farm his mother's small yard on Liberty Street, not far from the front gate of Hiddenbrooke, and in time began offering a hand to the Ursuline sisters, who were living off the land as much as they could, working the fields in their long habits.

Seeing his devotion, the sisters offered for him and the family to live in the gardener's house on the property. My grandmother agreed to come but not without a car, as it was too far to walk into town with their three small children, and a fourth on the way. It was just after the Second World War and cars were difficult to obtain, but the nuns were able to acquire one for them, and so in 1946 the Burkes moved from East Main Street to Hiddenbrooke.

The family stayed here rent free, but without pay, so Grandpa worked at the nearby Matteawan State Penitentiary for money, at the time a place for the "criminally insane." For over thirty years he would get up at dawn to work the farm and maintain the property and buildings, leaving after lunch for the 2-10pm shift at Matteawan, my grandmother driving him there and picking him up. He never had a drivers license.

In 1981, the Ursuline mother superior called the house, asking for my Grandparents to come to her office where she would inform them that the order was leaving the property, and wanted to gift the house and surrounding 12 acres of land to the family so they would not be displaced. My grandmother told me this story only once, and said that they walked back to the house in total silence, awestruck.

In 2017 I inherited the house and 7 acres of land from my mother, my grandparents long since passed, the fields long fallow. I had been running a donation based Yoga center in Beacon since 2011, and painting, without showing my work, enough to live on (spiritually and in the material) but not enough to consider buying anything on my own. A visit from a far kinder, wiser, gentler me, told me in a dream, in the house, ”You should spend more time here”. So I went, the house recently vacated by renters and being prepared for sale.

The first night I went I felt my grandmother's spirit; she rushed the stairs and up and toward where I slept on the floor of my mothers childhood bedroom; I called out my high mantra and to the archangel Michael for protection, and out the window into a burst of white light she went. Ascended. A few weeks later my mother called to say that she would come up with the money to buy her siblings out of the house, which she did.

In 2021 I had the great privilege of painting again with the artist and teacher Graham Nickson, twenty years after first studying with him at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture. Covid had brought the School's beloved drawing marathons into the virtual realm and so I could join him from my garage studio here.

His instruction was to find the most yellow yellow, the blackest black, and the reddest red, and I sought that in paint for the afternoon. That night I dreamt I was in the house walking down the hall and saw through the frame of the kitchen window the north field, the earth turned over revealing the blackest black, surrounded by the yellowest yellow where the grass remained, and a figure standing toward the bottom left of the frame, I knew to be my Grandfather.

So a painting was conceived at the same time I saw the once and future farm, my Grandfather waiting. And, to my total astonishment and delight, I also discovered at that time that I was pregnant with my daughter Adelaide, now turning 4 (she's the wee one in the cover photo).

Surrendering to first time motherhood came not without great fear and internal resistance, and has transformed into deep gratitude and awe. But farming remained out of reach. So last year upon the request of a friend, I met a couple looking for land to start a new community sustained agricultural project they were creating. I leased the north field to them and agreed to provide water from our well, and the farm was started once again, after 44 years, and it was a spectacular first season here.

Now, the farmers are in contract to purchase their own farm in Sullivan County, so will not be returning for another season, and we have an opportunity to continue the work that is begun.

Your donation helps to buy a high tunnel, irrigation equipment and fence, and to begin planning for the next season of farming at Hiddenbrooke, Beacon’s oldest new farm. Your help will ensure a seamless transition from this first year operation and allows us to build upon what is begun. We look forward to seeing our food integrated into the fabric of this community, and a love of farming nurtured in the hearts of our children.